lentz



(No Model.)

S. A. LBNTZ.

METHOD OF CUTTING AND FORMING SHANKS 0B. OTHER ARTICLES FROM LEATHER.

Patented Nov. 11, 1884.

Unrrnn STATES PATENT @rrrcn.

SILAS A. LENTZ, OF ALLENTO WVN, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JOHN E. LENTZ, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF CUTTING AND FORMING SHANKS OR OTHER ARTICLES FROM LEATHER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 307,779, dated November 11, 1884.

1 4 Application filed August 4, [884. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SILns A. LENTZ, a citizen of the United States, residing at Allentown, in the county of Lehigh and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Method of Cutting Shanks and other Articles from Leather and other Substances, of which the following is a specification, reference being-had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention has relation to a method of producing shanks, heel-stiffeners, toe-boxes, and other irregular shapes of leather and other irregularshaped articles from other ma- I terials; and it consists in certain mechanical treatment of the material at the time of separating a portion thereof to produce the desired article, as hereinafter more fully described, and specifically set forth in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of one form of mechanism for practicing my method. Fig. 2 is a bottom plan View of the cutter-head carrying one patternroller. Fig. 3 is a section of the stationary pattern-block and an end elevation of the pattern-roller. terial as it appears after an article has been produced therefrom, and Fig. 5 is a plan, and Fig. 6 is a section on line 00, Fig. 5, of the article produced. Fig. 7 is a section on the line y g of Fig. 3.

Like letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

This invention is intended for application to practical use in the production of leather articlessuch as shanks, heel-stiffeners, toeboxes, and for leather shapes which are ordinarily used as fillings in all. leather-work, as constructed in the boot and shoe, harness, saddle, trunk, and other leather arts.

Heretofore it has been customary to first cut an article by hand or by dies agreeing with its outline, and subsequently skiving the same by hand or machinery; and I am una ware of practice which involves the idea of simultaneously cutting out and skiving or shaping an article either by the method herein disclosed as of my invention, or by any other method.

Fig. 4 is a plan of a piece of ma- Herctofore articles cut and shaped have been placed in pockets agreeing with the shape of the article, and said pockets with the articles therein have been passed beneath and by a knife having aparticular outline, whereby the side of the article coming in contact with said knife has been skived by it along two of its edges only. In this latter instance an ordinarypressure-roller, shaped like the knife and placed in front of it, has been employed. It has also been customary heretofore to pass ma- 6o terial (which is to be skived and cut to shape) with aplate having an aperture the outline of which is similar to that of the article to be 'produced between feeding-rollers, so as to deliver the plate and the material to a knife, whereby said material is cut to shape and skived upon one side only,the opposite side being flat. Furthermore, it has been customary to apply uniform pressure by mechanical devices upon one side of the material, in order to force it into a depression formed in one of the feed-rolls which deliver the material to a knife, and the material is thereby cut to outline and skived upon one side, and is fiat upon the opposite side. By my invention I determine not only the outline or contourof an article to be produced, but its shape at all points thereof, by varying a pressure upon both sides of the material at the time that a cut is being made therein. This principle of operation is the gist of my invention.

I have herein shown and described one form of mechanical devices which practices my method by operating according to the principle above stated; but I do not limit my in- 8 5' vention to that form of means, but deem the construction, sale, or use of mechanical devices combined with a cutting-instrument, when such devices are adapted by well-known means to determine the shape of the article by variations of pressure upon both sides of the material when the cut is made, as comprehended and covered by my invention. I11 fact, I have disclosed other means than those herein shown in a companion application, 5 Serial No. 139,598, filed and pending herewith, and indicated as Case B, in which the variable pressure is directly applied to opposite sides of the material, while by the mechanism herein disclosed the variable pressure is directly applied to the upper side only.

Referring to the drawings, A represents a bed of a machine; B, a standard projecting from the bed, and O a segmental rack secured to the bed.

In a recess in the bed A is secured a pattern, D, which is simply a die having the configuration of one side of an article to be producedsuch, for example, as a shank, X, Fig. 5--and projecting ledges or flanges D at each end (or side it may be) of the die portion, which flanges serve to retain and prevent the leather or other substance from displacement at the time that the cut is made, as hereinafter described.

E is an arm pivoted at E to the standard B, and carrying at its free end a cutter-head, F. WVithin the cutter-head is secured a straight knife, F, which is arranged in a slot or recess, F where it is firmly bound by means of a bolt, F Above the knife is a slot, F*, for the passage through the head of the article produced. In advance of the knife is a pattern, cam, or die roller, G, which is journaled in the head, and is provided with a gear adapted to mesh with the segmental rack 0, so that the roll shall be positively rotated as the head-block and arm E is oscillated across the bed A. The roll G has upon it and projecting from its periphery a pattern or cam, G, agreeing in shape with that of the article to be produced.

Fig. 3 shows the cam or projecting pattern as thicker at. its longitudinal center 9 than at its ends 9, and Fig. 2 shows it by shading as of a convex form. Now, being mounted on a rigid arm concentrically pivoted, the cam or pattern must bear upon the material in the die D with pressure varying in accordance with its shape and thickness, whereby (in this case) the upper and uncut surface of the article is shaped. In addition to this function of the cam, it, in connection with the bed-die, determines the amount and the portions of the material which are depressed below the path of the knife, and thus determine the outline and surface of the out side or surface.

) By referring to Figs. 6 and 7 it will be seen that the pattern or cam on the roll G is projected from the periphery of the roll a further distance at the points which determine the thicker portions of the article than at those points which determine the thinner portions, so that the edge of the knife, which is straight, and arranged as shown at the dotted lines 2, passes through the material as it is presented by and under the pressure of the cam. lhis variation in the projection in the cam determines the quantity of material which is pressed below the cutting-edge of the knife, and the greater the portion of material which is thus depressed the narrower is the article at the point of said greater depression, so that by varying the projection of the cam from the periphery of the roll G not only the thick ness or superficial shape, but the outline of the article is determined.

The configuration of the pattern in the bedpiece and of the cam may be varied to produce different effects by pressure alone. For example, they may be shaped to compress the material more or less along its edges to give a finish or skiving thereto, so that while one surface (in this case the under surface) of the article is given its shape by cutting, the 0pposite surface is shaped by pressure or resistance alone, and its outline or contour is produced by pressure and cutting.

A clearance, G", is left on the roll G for the purpose of entering material from which articles are to be out, so that the material ap pears after the article is produced'therefrom, as shown in Fig. 4, there being a recess, Y, agreeing exactly with the outline and with the contour of one face of the article, the cutting operation not necessarily extending entirely through the article, the material being shown by dotted lines, Fig. 6, while the shape of the upper face of the article is determined by the pressure of the cam and die. A piece of leather or other suitable material being placed within the die D, the arm E is swung across the bed, and the cam on the roller Gis,

by means of the gear and rack, made to mesh properly with the die D, and, being arranged in front of the knife-edge, it depresses the material below said edge into the die, so as to determine the cut and shape of the article, as above described.

This method of producing articles may be employed not only in producing parts of boots and shoes, and in any other leather arts, but may be advantageously used in the production of ornamental panels of paper, veneer,

and other materials, and in any arts where articles can bemade by first cutting to shape at the ends and edges thereof, and then determined in the contour of their upper or lower surfaces, or both, by further operations.

Heretofore in the production of articles of the character hereinbefore mentioned the methods employed have not involved features of my invention in two respects-viz: first, the feature of applying varying pressure upon, that side of the material opposite to the side at which the cutting operation is carried on, whereby said uncut side is shaped in cross and longitudinal sections, while at the same time the shape in like sections of the opposite side is produced by varying pressure and cutting, this feature or step of my method being also applicable to and capable of use with other procedures heretofore practiced for determining the outline and the shape of the article on the out side; second, the feature of my method which has not heretofore been practiced is the application of varying pressure or resistance at and upon or against opposite sides of the material at the time of cutting the same.

Having described my invention and its op- In testimony whereof I affix my signature in eration, What I claim is presence of two witnesses.

That improvement in the art of producing shanks, stifieners, or other analogous articles SILAS A. LENTZ.

5 from unprepared blanks, which consists in molding or shaping and cutting the same at Vitnesses; one and the same operation while under va- THOS. O. GINKINGER, rying pressure, substantially as set forth. EDWARD H. RENINGER. 

